Combinatorial optimization is a branch of Optimization in Applied mathematics and Computer science, related to Operations research, Algorithm theory and Computational complexity theory.
Sometimes it is called "discrete optimization", however the latter term is considered to be somewhat different.
The domain of combinatorial optimization is optimization problems where the set of feasible solutionss is discrete, and the goal is to find the best possible solution.
Examples are Traveling salesman problem, minimum spanning tree problem, linear programming problem.
References
- William J. Cook, William H. Cunningham, William R. Pulleyblank, Alexander Schrijver; Combinatorial Optimization; John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (November 12, 1997); ISBN: 047155894X.
- Christos H. Papadimitriou, and Kenneth Steiglitz; Combinatorial Optimization : Algorithms and Complexity; Dover Pubns; (paperback, Unabridged edition, July 1998) ISBN: 0486402584.
Journals
